IT companies in Scotland say they are finding it hard to compete for staff with the computer giant Dell, which set up a Scottish base last year.

The Texas-based company established its support centre in Glasgow in 2005 with the help of government grants and is on target to create 850 jobs by the end of this year.

But smaller IT companies say the attraction of Dell means they are losing out on trained workers. Scotsys, part of the Adventi group, has lost eight out of its 65 staff to Dell in the past nine months.

Some of the staff are understood to have been approached to move by Dell employees incentivised to bring in new staff.

The Scotsys managing director, John McAleenan, said the Bellshill-based company had lost key members of staff and he knew of other companies that had been similarly affected.

“We spend quite a bit of money and time training people, but cannot compete with a global company which has resources like Dell, so when they come calling it is hard to fend them off,” he said.

“It is a free market, but the money Dell received from the executive was to create jobs. My worry is whether the jobs they are creating are merely being displaced from other companies in neighbouring authorities and in the process they are creating inflationary pressures.”

“It can take us 18 months to train up staff and when we lose them like this it is obviously difficult.”

Dell was given £7.5m in Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) by the executive to help set up its contact centre.

A spokesman for Dell said that it had been actively recruiting staff in Scotland through “transparent and fair recruitment processes”.

“We are on target to recruit 850 employees by the end of 2008 in a variety of roles,” he said.

“We do offer an employee referral programmes, in line with many other companies. It is standard practice and is an additional incentive for staff as part of their benefits.

“The grant Dell received is offered to a number of companies to help them set up. However, Dell chose Scotland because of the excellent labour pool and quality of graduates. Our commitment to the Scottish economy is very strong.”

The executive defended the RSA award.

“RSA is a key incentive in attracting large, successful companies to Scotland — many of whom could locate anywhere in an increasingly global marketplace,” it said.

“In the past five financial years more than 800 grant offers totalling £280m have been accepted. Over two-thirds of these offers (68%) went to Scottish-owned companies.”